So you want to open a bookstore...

So, you want open a bookstore, eh?

Hmm...well, let's talk then shall we? You see, despite what you may think, or what your wonderfully imaginative brain may dream, opening up a bookstore isn't just a flick of the wand away. It isn't as simple as walking into a bank with a chirpy tie, plastered grin, and a cradle full of your toddler-like dreams of selling yourself into literary greatness. You have to (gasp!) formulate a business plan, delve into demographics (no!), create your brand (whaa...what?), and endure the neverending inefficiency and lagging apathy of the many branches of government to which you will spend countless hours of utter exhaustion trying to contact (this is as good a fainting point as any).

Still interested? Excellent, let's move forward then.

Do you have a logo? Are your trademarked? Any thoughts as to who your target customer will be? Have you thought about a website? Are you going to be a sole-proprietorship, a C-corp, an S-corp, or an LLC? Do you have an accountant and a lawyer? Where's the coffee? (no, really, where is it?) What is your anticipated initial order and how much start up capital do you require? Are you planning on hosting author events? And if so, do you want to include the local authors and their vast plethora of self-published works? Are you incorporating a plan of diversity in your staff and inventory? Will there be chairs and if so how often will you clean them? Wi-Fi anybody? Does the city back your decision to open your store, and if so, what committee(s) are you now a part of? Do you know that book with the pink cover and the little fairies and the kind of, you know, big like print underneath the sprinkle of dust that was on that television program last night about literary deficiency in today's youth? You better.

So, how's the checklist? Mine's a wreck. Seriously, you have no idea. I have a dry erase board, two calendars, a business card folder, post-it notes all over the desk and a clutter of paperwork from stuff I've already had to buy. I don't even have a storefront yet. Good Lord, what-have-I-done?

Cheeky humor aside, it is a daunting task, as is opening a business of any kind. But it occurred to me (o.k, it occurred to my marketing director first, but I'm the owner and usurp all GREAT ideas as mine own) that detailing the process in our blog would be a tremendous way to educate the masses as to how involved and trying a process it is. Had I read of what lay ahead in a book, or blog, or column of any sort, I might very well have been better prepared and perhaps...just perhaps, more organized. But hey, why waste time dawdling huh? Gung Ho! Blanchard would be proud. So now, I grant you the opportunity to watch and learn from all the horrifying mistakes I will make. I suspect that somewhere along the way, your grand ideas of opening your own bookstore will melt away and coalesce elsewhere in a more recognizable form you may actually be able to use. Then you might want to read these blogs again. Just a thought. Right?

For those of you in the Decatur/Atlanta area, I hope that you will find these blogs entertaining and informative and perhaps just a touch insightful. We wish to instill in you the same excitement and fervor for books--and for what we will represent on your behalf--that we cart around like a treasured heriloom, or even just a half-eaten box of chocolates.

For those of you just in the mood for a bit of fun and inspired humor, sit tight, tuck yourself in and grab the nearest fluffy thing that won't squeak everytime you touch it, and enjoy yourself. I may strap Wordsmiths into the baby harness and cart it around into its adulthood, but I don't take myself seriously and am utterly convinced that had I, at any point in my youth, taken an IQ test, that I would have found myself--and might still--in a wonderfully colorful room with lots of big pictures and blunt crayons. Ah, the waxy Crayola we cleave is but a tendril of self, mortified and endowed with a fear unlike any we have known. Something like that anyway.

So, with this blog, I thee wed. It should, on its better days--those I am likely not blogging on--serve to let you into the minds of the staff at Wordsmiths Books and leave you with an idea as to what we are reading, what we are thinking, and why we refuse to read Thomas Harris and his latest episode of Hannibal. We'll have book reviews, author interviews, and the occasional A-list author popping in to write a little something from their vastly creative minds. All of this, easily accessible from our website, for you to peruse, for you to enjoy and for you to find the inspiration to buy one more book. Just that one...just between you and me.

For now, though I will chronicle where we are at in the process very soon, I will say only this: Opening a bookstore is arduous, stressful, mind-boggling and a constant barrage of unforseen problems and difficulties. Yet it is the realization of a dream and a blissful pain through and through. Oh, and remember...the most essential truth to opening a bookstore and ensuring that your endurance is maxed and reinforced is the quintessential essence of LOTS and LOTS of coffee.

--zach